The Renegotiated Self: Social Media's Effects on Identity

This article aims to expand the critical frameworks by which online social networking can be contextualised and understood within the broader cultural practices of identity and selfhood. Utilising Judith Butler's theories of performative identity, it is argued that the use of social networking sites are performative acts in and of themselves. Two facets of social networking are examined from theoretical and critical perspectives: (1) the use of social networking profiles (Info pages, taste selections, biographies) as a tool for performing, developing and stabilising identity as a narrative in line with cultural demands for coherence, intelligibility and recognition; (2) identity performances that occur through relationality among online friends through list maintenance and communication (wall posts, tagging, commentary), and how identity is reconfigured within a network morphology. Finally, the article aims to open discussion around the broad cultural practices and implications of online social networking by developing some theoretical approaches to understanding the incompatibilities between these two facets which compete and risk the 'undoing' of online identity coherence. Within the framework of the growing use of social networking sites as one area in which our selfhood and subjectivity are performed, this incompatibility and undoing has both risks and benefits for future the cultural production of identity.

The aim of this study was to understand how two Participants, one Female and one Male, viewed their Identity when using Social Media Websites. Various aspects of Self and Identity were explored during the research phase, along with Embodiment (a feature of the Participant’s Lifeworld), Social Media as a Cultural Tool, Identity Construction, Self-Presentation, and Avatar creation. Social Identity Theory also helped to inform the online Social Groups people affiliate with. The Methodology used was an Interpretive Analysis of two semi-structured interviews, to elicit the participant’s personal view of their Identity when they were online. The two participants were known to the interviewer to utilise existing rapport and help with the interview process. The main themes to emerge from their interviews were: That their Identity was informed by using a Cultural Tool, more specifically Receiving Information and Communication and Expression, and that their Identity/Personality informed the way they used Social Media. The conclusions drawn from this are that although there are several areas where the participant’s identities were reflected in their use of social media, through their posts and the information they gathered from different news sources, there was a disparity between the Online and Offline Self that is bound into the way Social Media is constructed and used.

Digital Identities explores the ways technology and online media have infiltrated our daily lives, and how they shape and affect who we are, both online and off. Critical studies over the past century have pointed to the multifaceted nature of identity, with a number of theories and approaches examining how everyday people have a sense of themselves, their behaviors, desires, and representations. This book investigates how these cultivated forms of identity have grown more complex with the increasing ubiquity of interactive, digital and networked media and communication, and how our perception of the self and cultural markers have changed. It details how digital users fashion not just a single online self-representation, but how they create different personas depending upon the digital platform, with whom they are communicating, and how they wish to perceive themselves, as well as how they have the capacity to co-create common and group narratives of identity through interactivity and the proliferation of audio-visual user-generated online content. We have moved from making use of online communication as separate from other aspects of life to one in which digital media infiltrates and networks with almost all aspects of our everyday lives. Traces of our online identity are everywhere—social networking pages, blogs, Twitter, and more, all of which actively contribute to elements of our identity. our identities are always ‘on’ Digital Identities helps make sense of the implications for subjectivity and selfhood in an era of constant connectivity.

Media Transformations Journal Vol. 10 / 2014., 2014

""The topic of virtual identity has gained academic attention with the increasing popularity of user created Internet content (referred to as Web 2.0) on social media networks. A seismic technological and cultural shift occurred with the rise of social media, a shift from corporal existence in the real world to a virtual existence online. These emerging forms of communication culture have placed media theorists in new frontiers of interdisciplinary research, to understand and explain the phenomena of virtual identity. In our technologically determinist culture we increasingly depend on digital media for validating offline information, which places us in a paradigmatic shift where the offline (real) loses importance while the online (virtual) gains meaning. It can be argued that virtual existence via digital identity has become exponentially popular because of a culture that associates technology with progress, while largely ignoring the social ramifications and the individual effects of the new media ecology. This study merges both theoretical resources on the discussion of digital/virtual identity in such fields as media ecology, virtual ethnography, narrative identity theory, psychology and the philosophy of communication with qualitative primary research on how artists and other creative professionals utilize social media to negotiate a professional and social reputation. Key Words Digital Identity • Digital Culture • Media Ecology • Virtual Ethnography Digital Identity Narratives • Artists • Self-Promotion • Social Media""

Is the online me the real me or the fake me? On the 1st of October, Beer Bergman shared her views about the world we live in today, where social networking and digital identity creating are sometimes essential. She raised questions about the importance and the accuracy of selfies and avatars; how do they represent us? Are they authentic or only masks? Why do we need to “practice smiling”? What about the issue of sociability or “extimité”? In general, we have three profiles: professional, intimate and public, and they constitute a “multiple quest for identity”. She considers the “me” as a collection: of traces, of persons…And often, the management of one’s profile is dealt with as a real business. Finally, she mentioned the problems of ethics in social media, which are often questioned. Social media may have to be rethought and morality to be developed. But, as she pointed out, there is “no need to say that it is a good thing or a bad thing. It’s the world we live in. (Resumé from http://distinguishedseries.com/2014/10/04/digital-identities-social-networks-and-me/ )

Minor Thesis, submitted as part of qualification achievement for the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at The University of Melbourne, 2018

In the “Age of Icons”, a digital echo of the self emerges in an online ecology where representations of the self and others are signified in virtual, globally networked profiles. In digital spaces, real and online friends, followers and connections collide. Social media platforms have evolved into dynamic and malleable communicative spaces, that guide an individual’s construction of a ‘profile’ on their network. The ‘profile image’, provides options for a user to express a visualisation of themselves, alongside multimodal presentations of personal content. This technologically-mediated icon of self, can portray a user’s actual or desired physical appearance, an identity that translates from the “real world” into online expressions of cultural, social and emotional values. Through developing an online presence, in singular, or inter-connecting, social accounts or platforms, this thesis asks the question: how do we construct representations of ourselves online, using our social media profile pictures? Building on recent literature surrounding online image production, dissemination, and identity formation on social media, I have collected and coded extensive, qualitative data – gathered through semi-structured interviews – with a small study group of 21-35-year-old social media users. This thesis presents a thematic analysis of the process of creating an online identity and explores the adaptation of this online marker of identity to technological features of social media accounts. Finally, it examines impacts of profile pictures in the daily lives of social media users, where online and offline realities can intersect. The chosen case study is ‘profile images’: the literal, or figurative, public face a user wears when interacting in online, social media platforms. The thesis considers the interplay between varied forms of self-expression, and conceptions of identity in a user, as they live offline and online through their use of social media profiles.

Digimag Journal - 75, Digicult Editions, 2017

One of the most interesting aspects of our relationship with technology is the way we relate to other people and create new identity narratives through it. Internet, social networks and p2p tools have amplified this phenomenon, enabling the ramification of larger networks built around individuals. As a consequence, personal narratives are linked to virtual (and real) dimensions of social, economic and artistic fields. Digital identity becomes, therefore, the individual unit of a larger digital culture environment. Digimag Journal is the interdisciplinary peer-reviewed online publication by Digicult Editions, seeking high-standard articles and reviews at the intersection between digital art and contemporary art production, the impact of the last technological and scientific developments on modern society, economy, design, communication and third millennium creativity. Digicult Editions is the publishing initiative of the Digicult project. Contributing authors: Samaa Ahmed, Nicola Bozzi, Claire Burke, Marco Cadioli, Alessio Chierico, Salvatore Iaconesi, Patty Jansen, Linda Kronman, Miriam La Rosa, Patrick Lichty, Randall Packer, Oriana Persico, Jeroen Van Loon, Andreas Zingerle. Marco Mancuso (edited by), Places and Spaces: Digimag Journal 75, Digicult Editions, Milan 2017. Paperback, color, 117 pages, ISBN 979-8841369844 This book is also internationally available on: t.ly/4LHg

2018

This chapter explores the construction of identity in online communities and websites for social purposes, and its consequences in terms of how one’s online identity may be utilized to such an extent that one’s real-world identity is either enforced or eroded. It does so by investigating the very nature of identity, coming predominantly from a cultural studies research and philosophical view, although it also cites some related findings and advances in computing and information systems (IS) research. The central argument across the chapter is two-fold: firstly, in promoting an initial shift in focus from the management of online identity to the nature and significance of identity itself whose construction may be conceptualized as a process of sense making and strengthening; and only then, armed with a better understanding of identity, one can focus back upon the management of it more effectively, with a view to the individual taking more control of their own identity within cyberspa...

For centuries, humans have used their interaction with one another to help shape outsiders' perceptions of them. Often communication experts refer to this as constructing one's "social identity." For many years, this projection of self came through interpersonal communication --face-to-face communication --or other forms of personal interaction. In the progress of technology, this development of one's personal attributes has come to include photographs, letters, published and unpublished writings, hearsay, and physical attributes. Many aspects of a person's "identity" as others see it are difficult and almost impossible to define. In the modern age, such vague characteristics are both helped and hindered by using social media and the internet to "construct" our identities. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Fotolog, Photobucket and LinkedIn help contemporary users develop profiles to project images and facts they would like the public to see. Identity can be constructed with the use of social media; however, it can also be falsely projected, thus causing misconceptions about oneself or misconceptions about others. Therefore, the invention and widespread use of new technologies such as social media has created a new definition of "personal identity" that accepts both realistic and facaded characteristics, but can ultimately destroy one's true "self" and reputation.